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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28401708">Signed, Kaiba.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/OperaGoose/pseuds/Blue%20Eyes%20Black%20Dragon'>Blue Eyes Black Dragon (OperaGoose)</a>, <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/OperaGoose/pseuds/OperaGoose'>OperaGoose</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime &amp; Manga)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Historical, Courtship, Historical but Gay, Love Letters, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 16:15:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,865</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28401708</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/OperaGoose/pseuds/Blue%20Eyes%20Black%20Dragon, https://archiveofourown.org/users/OperaGoose/pseuds/OperaGoose</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a match well-made. Joseph Wheeler needs a fortune and Seto Kaiba needs someone of good social standing. A courtship begins.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>36</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. One Look</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
Joseph Wheeler was the eldest grandson of the great General Castle, on his mother’s side. An impressive lineage, but not a penny to his name. But Serenity was of a delicate disposition, and if he was to care for her, he needed to change that. His mother was equally determined. 
</p>
<p>
Serena Wheeler had been infatuated by a young Colonel of her father’s, who was very promising in his youth. But after a marriage and giving him two children, Colonel Wheeler was wounded in action. He settled into drink and indolence. She raised their children in Town, in her father’s home.
</p>
<p>
Joseph did not show much promise, but Serenity was her darling. Beautiful, and talented, Mrs Wheeler has been sure her daughter was destined to marry well. But Serenity had grown sickly and thin, with troubled eyes-- and the duty of maintaining the family had fallen to Joseph. 
</p>
<p>
So here he was, at a winter’s ball, practically on display to be bartered for. Dressed in a new suit, waiting for enough gossip to spread so the social climbers could find him as a target. 
</p>
<p>
There were two kinds of young people in attendance: the well-bred, and the nouveau-riche. Joseph technically counted as the former. Though his mother had urged him to keep his mouth shut to maintain the impression. 
</p>
<p>
So, as hard as it was, he played quiet and polite, charming to dance with but not much of a conversationalist. 
</p>
<p>
A Miss Valentine, beautifully blonde and fashionable, had seemed interested. And even after they had danced the maximum number of socially acceptable times, she was still smiling at him across the ballroom. 
</p>
<p>
The mixer dance came to its stage, and the pretty brunette girl he was dancing with was handed off. He suddenly found himself in the arms of a strikingly tall man. Upturning his head to smile, he was struck again. First, by the utter blue of his eyes, and then the handsome features that housed them. He felt aflutter, and tried to tell himself it was the exercise of the dancing. 
</p>
<p>
Though the man was dancing the followers’ part, his hands were firm and reassured against Joseph’s as he guided him around the circle. And then the stranger was handed off again and Joseph felt strangely cold in his absence. 
</p>
<p>
After the dance, he headed back to where his mother stood with other escorts, feeling oddly dazed. 
</p>
<p>
She gripped his arm and took him a short way away, fanning herself rapidly. “Joey, do you know who that was?”
</p>
<p>
“Whom?” He asked vaguely.
</p>
<p>
“The gentleman!” she hissed, irritated by him.
</p>
<p>
“No. I’ve never seen him before.” <em>Is he rich?</em> He wanted to ask. 
</p>
<p>
“Mister Seto Kaiba,” she explained.
</p>
<p>
“Mm.” He acknowledged. Then it took a few minutes for the name to sink in. “Wait, <em>Kaiba</em>?”
</p>
<p>
Sir Gozaburo Kaiba had made a fortune in the Revolutionary War by designing and selling a new sort of bayonet that made loading and firing easier and quicker. The production companies had changed, in the last decade, to develop a sort of coal-run engine that was being used to build locomotives. 
</p>
<p>
Mr Seto Kaiba was not just <em>rich</em>. He was the <em>richest man in Domino!</em>
</p>
<p>
No wonder his mother was fanning herself. 
</p>
<p>
She nodded firmly. 
</p>
<p>
“Can we be introduced?” He asked.
</p>
<p>
She gave a sort of pursed-lipped look. Eyeing a crowd of people across the room - where he could only just see a head of brunet hair that stood taller than all the others. “Not tonight, I think.” 
</p>
<p>
He nodded. She’d contrive a way, inevitably. A Kaiba was too much of a catch to let get away without at least trying for him.
</p>
<p>
~*~
</p>
<p>
One of the housemates giggled as she entered his room, where he was readying to dress for the day. “Yes, Eliza?” He asked, curiously.
</p>
<p>
“I’ve been urged such a secret task, Mr Wheeler sir.” She began.
</p>
<p>
“I won’t tell anyone,” he said, giving her an easy smile. 
</p>
<p>
She held out a letter in her soot-covered hand. It was folded and wax-sealed, but not addressed or stamped. 
</p>
<p>
“Eliza?” He prompted.
</p>
<p>
“It’s a letter handed to me directly, sir. When it was known that I served at your house. It came directly from Kaiba House!” she sounded eager and delighted.
</p>
<p>
“Kaiba House?” He repeated, his heart thudding in his chest.
</p>
<p>
“A footman pressed it into my hand ever so secretly and whispered just in my ear that no one was to read it but you, sir!”
</p>
<p>
He nodded and she hurried back out with a curtsey and another giggle. His hands shook as he crossed to his window and sat to open the letter. 
</p>
<p> 

</p>
<p>
Jou read the letter, once, and again. His face grew warm, and he had to hide himself behind a hand as if the man himself was looking at him. 
</p>
<p>
He had never thought that he could leave such an impression on anyone, let alone someone as eligible as Mr Kaiba. He was a little handsome, he supposed, and he had the impressive lineage. But Mr Kaiba could tempt a princess with his fortune, and any heiress with his handsome face.
</p>
<p>
Pressing the letter to his chest for a moment, he allowed a smile to overcome his face to help the joy he struggled to contain. Then he pushed it under his seat cushion and rushed to dress for the day.
</p>
<p>
His mother tried to call for him, but he dismissed her and headed eagerly to the coat room to don his hat and his coat and flee. 
</p>
<p>
He went on foot to the Central Park. It was a long journey, and he regretted not having the carriage soon, but he fuelled himself with remembrances of the phrases from his letter. 
</p>
<p>
A look, Mr Kaiba pleaded for. He had to give him something more. He plotted as he came into the park, trying to look as if he was on a leisurely stroll. He hadn’t bought a handkerchief with him, to his disappointment, or he could drop it and let Mr Kaiba pick it up.
</p>
<p>
He came around to a violet shrub. With a smile, he reached out and plucked a flower from it. Yeah… that would do.
</p>
<p>
The path turned and the gazebo came into view. He climbed the stairs, and a smile crossed his face. 
</p>
<p>
Mr Seto Kaiba was standing, looking at the other pathway. He was dressed in a fashionable blue coat, standing in a neat posture. He didn’t look behind him as Joey’s footsteps sounded against the wood of the deck. 
</p>
<p>
He smiled to himself, and stood as close to the gentleman as he dared. Enough to look as if they were simply strangers sharing the same view. He hardly dared to breathe.
</p>
<p>
The moment until Mr Kaiba turned his head felt like an eternity. And then suddenly he was arrested by a familiar pair of blue eyes. 
</p>
<p>
He had to keep himself from blurting out something stupid. Carefully, he placed the violet bloom on the railing of the gazebo. Dared to meet Mr Kaiba’s eyes a final time, then he turned to flee. Face aflame and heart aflutter. 
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Invitation</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
“Joey, you’ve been invited to dine with Mister Crawford.” 
</p>
<p>
He blinked. “Do we know Mister Crawford?” He asked.
</p>
<p>
“Everybody knows Mister Crawford,” his mother answered, looking over her letters. “You were introduced a few years ago at his card evening.” 
</p>
<p>
“Oh, that Mister Crawford.” He nodded. “Dinner?” Mr Crawford rarely held dinner parties.
</p>
<p>
“Dinner and cards,” she agreed. “I’ll make sure your new suit is pressed. I’m sure we can make your waistcoat work again.” 
</p>
<p>
When he got back to his room, Eliza was giggling again. “The Footman came again.” 
</p>
<p>
“Oh.” He looked away, feeling his face heat. He just quietly held out a hand, and Eliza pressed another letter into it with a giggle.
</p>
<p>
He could barely wait until she was out of the room before he was breaking the plain wax seal and unfolding the page desperately. From within the folded pages, a violet tumbled into his hand. Surprised, he picked it up, a smile overcoming his face.
</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>
So that was why he had been invited to dine with Mr Crawford. It was all Mr Kaiba’s arrangement. Smiling, he tucked the violet into his pocketbook, and the letter went under the window seat along with the first. 
</p>
<p>
Until Monday then, and he wasn’t sure Mr Kaiba would leave his thoughts for more than five minutes the rest of the week. 
</p>
<p>
~*~
</p>
<p>
Mr Crawford’s dinner was a merry crush. Filled with young people with their escorts, more of an evening party than a dinner. Their host even hinted they may have some dancing later. 
</p>
<p>
Joseph found his friend Mr Diesel Kane, and stood with him in the corner. He searched above the heads for the tall figure of Mr Kaiba. He had promised to be here. 
</p>
<p>
Eventually he found him. He was in an opposite corner with Mr Crawford, and surrounded by a number of young people being introduced. 
</p>
<p>
“Don’t tell me you’re buying into that whole farce, Joey,” Mr Kane said. 
</p>
<p>
“Hm?” He asked. 
</p>
<p>
“Mr Kaiba’s upward climb,” Kane continued. “Seems he’s being introduced to every eligible person in the city. Bachelor or bachelorette.” 
</p>
<p>
Joseph kept quiet. He knew it was unfashionable to show a preference equal, but he himself was the same. 
</p>
<p>
And even if Mr Kaiba was… eligible. Joseph had letters. But he would wait. 
</p>
<p>
They were eventually led to the dining room. He found himself all the way down the other end of the table, and could barely eat for the anticipation in his stomach. 
</p>
<p>
They separated — gentlemen for port, ladies to the drawing room. Jou excused himself from both and found a small balcony to refresh himself. 
</p>
<p>
The cold night air brought doubt. Mr Kaiba had made no signs, no overtures. It was as if he wasn’t even looking for him there. 
</p>
<p>
Forlorn, he took his pocketbook from his jacket and removed the dried violet bloom. Turning it over in his fingers. The scent had faded, but the colour was preserved. 
</p>
<p>
He heard footsteps behind him and turned his head. His breath caught in his throat as he spotted Mr Kaiba through the balcony doors, haloed in candlelight. 
</p>
<p>
The gentleman stepped out, and a hesitant smile crossed his face. He looked to the violet bloom in Joseph’s hand — and silently removed his handkerchief to unfold. Within was another bloom, the one Joseph himself had picked in the park. 
</p>
<p>
Joseph beamed back. How could he have doubted? 
</p>
<p>
“We haven’t been introduced,” Mr Kaiba said softly. 
</p>
<p>
He blushed and offered his bare hand forward. “I won’t tell if you won’t.”
</p>
<p>
Mr Kaiba clasped his hand, and Joseph felt a spark travel from the brush of their skin. He bit his lip and lowered his face. Overcome. 
</p>
<p>
“What do you play?” Mr Kaiba asked, his voice low and husky. 
</p>
<p>
Dazed, Joseph could only murmur in confusion. 
</p>
<p>
“At cards,” he continued. “What will you sit down to tonight?”
</p>
<p>
“Vingt-et-un,” he answered, his voice at a whisper. 
</p>
<p>
“I will try to join you.” He lowered Joseph’s hand and tucked away his violet bloom. “I must get back before they notice my absence.” 
</p>
<p>
He could only nod and watch the other gentleman walk away. 
</p>
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